And a whole day of nothing

I’d say it was sorely needed but, well, I’m not completely sure about that.

I was extremely tired, though, because I stayed up until 1.30. First trying to watch the Agatha Christie mystery with my husband who didn’t really understand anything. Not having subtitles is a bear. We even tried the German dubbed version and that wasn’t working much better so we decided to drop it. I then proceeded to watch two episodes of C-drama and then I talked to the boy for an hour or so and then it was really late.

So I skipped my morning routine, started lengthening the sleeves on my husband’s latest sweater after breakfast:

Unpicking a sewn tubular bind-off takes some time.

I did the usual housework, cut my husband’s hair, did bodyweight training and foot stretches, ate asparagus risotto and then sat around, occasionally eating a cookie or two or my mother-in-law’s poppy seed cake. As always she had forgotten how much we all love poppy seed cake and so she asked us three times if we really wanted some. Even Susanne? Yes, especially Susanne who has always loved poppy seed everything. Here’s a picture of the risotto:

It always looks way more bland than it tastes. I also finished reading a book and spent a lot of time on silly iPad games. Waited for a long time for my husband to tell me I could use hot water but hadn’t found the time to actually tell him to tell me so, so I sat there all afternoon and hadn’t done the dishes or taken a shower at 7.30.

But the funnest part of the day came when my husband brought the teeny Christmas tree inside and went up to the attic to fetch the tree stand. But he couldn’t find it. He looked again. I went upstairs and looked as well. No tree stand. We looked everywhere.

Now, my mother-in-law has been decluttering like crazy over the past few years, and we haven’t had a Christmas tree in a while. The most likely scenario is that she gave both of our tree stands away because she thought they were hers. Which is a bit puzzling. My husband and I both remember that we owned two stands, one that was pretty small that we inherited from his grandparents and another one that I had gotten on Amazon one years because getting a regular-size tree into that old stand was almost impossible and meant cutting the trunk to size.

All of our decorations and such were still in the attic but the stands weren’t. We both remember the shelf they were supposed to sit on. That shelf is empty now.

When I asked my mother-in-law she was sure she hadn’t given them away, she didn’t know anything and suggested we had put our stand in the garage or the basement or had accidentally thrown it out with the Christmas tree. Sure. Especially since my husband usually cuts the tree up and uses it as firewood.

So it is a good thing that we didn’t get a regular Christmas tree this year but just the mini version. There was a plastic pot in the bike shed that held a plastic tree my mother-in-law wants to get rid of and we will use that pot to hold our tree this year.

It feels rather strange to find our possessions gone without any warning. But then we’ve had similar experiences in the past. After my first summer in this house I started keeping my flower pot in the attic instead of the garden shed because my mother-in-law didn’t remember they were mine and just used them and gave them away to friends. Likewise I am keeping my garden gloves indoors these days. I buy nice garden gloves, put them in the shed where they belong and the next time I need them there’s only one of the pair left.

And I learned that these days my husband keeps his small garden tools on the top shelf where she can’t reach easily.

I mean, if and when we buy a new Christmas tree stand it will be pretty safe to put it on the shelf where the old one should have been because these days my mother-in-law can’t really climb the ladder up to the attic anymore, but still.

So I ate a late dinner, finally did the dishes, took a shower, did Duolingo, watched C-drama and went to bed.

And today is Christmas Eve which means the wrapping of presents and the big Christmas dinner and a small present for the boy and my mother-in-law.